Customs Law 2014: A journey of more than 8 years into practice – Part 3: Customs procedures appreciated by the business community

	From January 1st 2017: What’s new about implementing import – export goods supervision at HCMC sea port?
	Review enforcement of Customs Law 2014
	Customs Law 2014: A journey of more than 8 years into practice – Part 1: Facilitating import-export and immigration activities

An officer of the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park Customs Branch - Binh Duong Customs Department guides procedures for a business. Photo: Dang Nguyen

Breakthrough in reform

Ms. Vu Thi Hoa, a representative of Hoa Dat Co., Ltd. – a company that regularly carries out import and export procedures at Huu Nghi international border gate (Lang Son) said from 2000 to 2005, the company used to send two or three staff to the border gate to register import and export procedures and make paper declarations. The company made nearly 1,000 declarations per year and there were shipments with many items so the declaration took a lot of time.

Since the Customs implemented the electronic declaration system, all procedures are made online and the company’s staff can make declarations at his office, helping to improve operational efficiency, saving time, costs and human resources for the company. Besides, the system increases proactiveness and reduces customs clearance time and returns results quickly.

The most remarkable thing is that the electronic declaration system automatically checks, grants numbers and channels declarations 24/7, so the company can declare anywhere, anytime and receive immediate feedback. If the goods are assigned to the Green channel, the company prints the results and goes to the border gate to pick up the goods; and if the goods are assigned to the Yellow and Red channels, the company must go to the Customs office to carry out the prescribed contents, Ms. Hoa emphasized.

The reform in applying information technology (IT) to the customs clearance process has been implemented very scientifically, effectively, and transparently. In particular, the electronic customs system also automatically calculates the tax payable, warns of incorrectly declared criteria and responds to businesses in just a few seconds.

Since the 2014 Customs Law came into effect, the electronic submission of customs dossiers has become the main method. Accordingly, customs dossiers are submitted by the customs declarant in electronic form (scanned copy with digital signature) immediately upon registration of the customs declaration. Thus, customs declarants do not need to prepare and submit paper documents to the Customs office.

In particular, according to Customs Law 2014, the customs declarant only submits necessary documents, rather than all documents related to import and export goods. This regulation both ensures transparency and reduces costs and human resources for both businesses and Customs. Accordingly, documents in customs dossiers are reduced and are digitized, helping businesses carry out procedures easily, saving a lot of costs and time, and making import-export activities more efficient and helping customs manage dossiers more scientifically and effectively, said Deputy Director of Lang Son Customs Department Vu Tuan Binh.

Speaking about this regulation, Mr. Nguyen Vu Tru, Director of Vietnam Machinery Equipment Joint Stock Company, said that this regulation contributes to reducing the customs clearance time, and reducing costs and human resources for businesses. This not only increases competitiveness but also creates the truth of businesses in the policies and solutions that the Customs and the state offers for business development.

Ho Chi Minh City area has sea routes with nearly 200 shipping firms operating in the field of shipping with about 9,000 ships on entry and exit; and air routes with more than 55 airlines with an average of nearly 300 international flights per day; and over 50,000 domestic enterprises and thousands of foreign-invested enterprises.

Managing a large and vibrant area, Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department has to complete procedures for about 9,000 declarations per day and accounts for 40% of the country’s trade turnover and 1/3 of the whole sector’s revenue. So, the Customs Law 2014 stipulates the open deadline for declaring and submitting customs declarations, giving businesses enough time to develop financial plans and human resources to make customs declarations on time and in accordance with the production and business needs of enterprises.

In addition, the regulation that the deadline for summiting documents in the customs dossiers is the time to help businesses actively make declarations and submissions in accordance with the described time limit and be the basis for the Customs to take measures if the business does not submit documents on time.

According to Nghe An Customs Department, the introduction of advanced and modern management methods, from manual processing to electronic processing has helped change the perception of Customs officers and affirmed the customs reform and modernization as an inevitable trend to develop the state apparatus. Electronic processing has not only facilitated businesses but also helped customs more effectively and accurately. In particular, with the large workload and increasing trends, the electronic processing method is a key to effectively completing set tasks.

The 2nd Business Dialogue Conference in 2023 of Tay Ninh Customs Department. Photo: Thu Diu

Bringing the Customs-business relationship to the cooperative partnership

Along with administrative reform to simplify procedures, the General Department of Customs has coordinated with relevant units to advise the Ministry of Finance and the Government to amend and supplement regulations related to customs procedures, customs inspection and supervision of import and export goods, and means of transport to further facilitate import and export activities, contributing to the goal of reducing customs clearance time.

Some typical documents include the Law on Tax Administration No. 38/2019/QH14; Decree 57/2019/ND-CP on Preferential Export Tariffs and Special Preferential Import Tariffs to implement the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership for the period 2019-2022; Decree 85/2019/ND-CP regulating the implementation of administrative procedures according to NSW, ASEAN Single Window and specialized inspection for import and export goods...

Businesses also appreciate the role of the Customs agency in specifying the determination of the origin of import and export goods when on April 20, 2018, the Minister of Finance issued Circular 38/2018/TT -The BTC regulates the determination of origin of import and export goods. This is the document implementing Article 32 of Decree 31/2018/ND-CP of the Government detailing the Law on Foreign Trade Management, as well as concretizing Article 26 of Circular 38/2015/TT-BTC and legalizing some previous instructions of the Ministry of Finance regarding the time to submit C/O and offset C/O for goods stored in bonded warehouses.

The business community believes that Circular 38/2018/TT-BTC is an important legal document that specifies, unifies and publicizes regulations on determining the origin of import and export goods. For the first time, there is a separate document in the field of origin determination to help Customs and businesses conveniently perform tasks and look up information. The promulgation of the circular facilitates import-export activities of enterprises; protects consumer rights and applies tariff incentives in accordance with international commitments to which Vietnam is acceded.

Recently, one of the typical solutions to facilitate customs procedures and customs inspection and supervision for import and export goods is that the Customs agency accepts enterprises to submit electronic documents (scanned copies with digital signature confirmation) in the customs dossier for customs clearance of goods; allows businesses to submit scanned Certificate of Origin forms AK, KV to enjoy special preferential tax rates under the Free Trade Agreement with South Korea.

At the same time, the Customs agency also established support teams to solve problems with customs procedures for import and export goods with lists of officers and phone numbers from the General Department, Department to branch level working 24/7 to promptly receive and handle problems of customs declarants to ensure support for quick customs clearance.

The Customs dialogue activities with businesses have been highly appreciated by civil servants in the sector as well as the business community. In addition to helping the business community improve awareness of compliance with customs and tax laws, the Customs agency has promptly answered questions of businesses, thereby, bringing the Customs-business relationship to the cooperative partnership.

In recent years, business dialogue conferences have been organized very often in the forms of online and offline and are announced and broadcast online on the public media, contributing to improving the effectiveness of this work, solving and removing difficulties and attracting the business community.

In particular, during the period of strong outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in the South, the General Department of Customs also promptly issued a document allowing Saigon Newport Corporation to bring goods from Cat Lai port to dry seaports in the same seaport system of the Corporation in Ho Chi Minh City and Binh Duong and Dong Nai provinces to relieve congestion and overload at Cat Lai port and support businesses to implement customs clearance right in their place without moving to HCM City to receive goods.

The General Department of Customs also promptly advised and developed and proposed to the Ministry of Finance to submit to the Government for promulgation Circular No. 82/2021/TT-BTC dated September 30, 2021, regulating customs supervision of border-transfer goods in case imported goods are congested or at risk of congestion at seaports where Directive 16/CT-TTg of the Prime Minister on COVID-19 pandemic prevention is applied.

To create maximum favorable conditions for people and businesses, the Customs agency also considered not sanctioning administrative violations on customs procedure deadlines due to force majeure situations; suspended inspections on the preservation of goods at locations in blockade areas until the blockade was lifted and reviewed other policies such as post-customs clearance inspections, extensions or approval of eligibility of customs agents. In particular, the Customs agency provided maximum support for export procedures for agricultural products through border provinces; and fast customs clearance for imported goods that are medical supplies and equipment, modern medicines, vaccines and medical biological products for pandemic prevention.

Recognizing the efforts of the Customs agency, Mr. Vu Song Tung, Head of the Import-Export Department, Song Hong Garment Joint Stock Company, said that the Customs agency has continuously made efforts to reform administrative procedures and enhance IT application and policy development to create favorable conditions for import and export activities. At the same time, the Customs provided relevant data to promptly serve the direction, management and policies of the Government, ministries and sectors in trade facilitation.

It can be said that the timely solutions of the General Department of Customs have made an important contribution to implementing the dual goals of speeding up customs clearance and support for business and production activities, without disrupting the supply chain, and helping significantly to ensure supply in the trade flow.

The General Department of Customs is agreeing on the Plan for implementing and drafting an outline of the summary report on the implementation of the Customs Law 2014. The Legal Department has developed an outline of the summary report on the implementation of the 2014 Customs Law, including assessing performance specified below building a system of documents to implement the Law; evaluating the provisions of the Customs Law with international treaties related to the customs field of which Vietnam is a member; customs procedures for import and export goods; Post-clearance audits; anti-smuggling; risk management…

(Part 4: Transparent and effective National Single-Window mechanism)